I have managed to install the Cygwin on my Windows Vista machine. I installed using the default settings.

When I try to do vi in the Bash shell, Bash tells me command not found. I believe I need to install the Cygwin editors package which include the vi editor. The nightmare is every time I run the Cygwin setup and select ONLY the editors package and specifically the Vim and select install, Cygwin setup tries to install all other packages, very frustrating!!

Is there an easier way of installing just a single package using the Cygwin setup utility?

3 Answers
3

There is a reason Cygwin also selects those other packages: vi (vim) depends on them. If you really don't like this, you'll have to build/find a statically linked version of vim, or just use a different version altogether, e.g. download the Windows executable from vim.org.

Does it mean VIM depends on all the packages in installation?
–
gathNov 13 '09 at 12:36

No, it depends on those packages which are automatically marked for installation when you mark vim for installation. Of course, it is very likely that it also depends on some other packages which are already (by default) installed.
–
Stephan202Nov 13 '09 at 12:42

1

Those other packages may also depend on even more packages. I tend to install either all of Cygwin or none of it. If I want specific tooling, I use GnuWin32 (or, in your case, gVim).
–
paxdiabloNov 13 '09 at 12:45

Setup.exe doesn't install everything unless you ask it to. What it does do by default is to mark for update any packages that you already have installed and of which newer versions are available. If you don't want that, select the 'Keep' button near the top right of the package selection screen before you select vim.